Writer Christopher Buckley - The New Times The new novel by Christopher Buckley "Day of the Boomerang", which deals with the crisis of the US welfare system, has been translated into Russian. Blame the baby boomers who started to retire. The writer told The New Times Christopher Buckley groped for another pain point of Americans - the problem of the retired generation of baby boomers 1 to contain. And the state is unable to support.

Alexey German - The New Times "I tried to challenge." On July 20, he turns 70 years old to a unique master of domestic cinema, the author of just a few films, each of which became the most important milestone in the history of contemporary art - Alexei Herman. On the eve of the anniversary, the New Times Observer talked with the director Seventy years-does this figure mean something to you? Russian physiologists believed that 70 years is the limit of a man’s life.

This question is the subject of constant discussion in countries that are still on their knees and that are just getting up from them. After watching G-8 leaders meet in Hokkaido, The New Times turns to experts Can the G8 be called a world government? Yegor Gaidar, director of the Institute for the Economy in Transition: The G8 has always been a soft and informal institution that does not have its own apparatus and does not make decisions, although it is certainly important.

Jaromir Jagr left without protection Jagr defense. Avangard Omsk has done a great job for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the first championship of which 24 teams from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Latvia will start playing this September. Avangard signed a two-year contract (with the possibility of an extension for another year) with 36-year-old Czech hockey superstar Jaromir Jagr The KHL promises to open the amounts of hockey players' contracts, but has not yet done so.

Tricium of great funeral. The Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church) made an appeal on the need to eliminate the graveyard on Red Square In criminal cases without corpses, it is difficult to do: there is no corpse, there is no crime. In the case of the mausoleum, the corpse is just there. And the crime is that this corpse is not in place. Around this problem, that is, the corpse and its luxurious Penthouse since 1991, democrats walked.

How to smuggle a personal library across borders Never go to Europe by car. And if you have nowhere to go, take old icons, drugs, boxes of vodka with you - but not books. The journalist was given the task: to cross the borders with 200 volumes of the Library of World Literature. Here's what came out of it It so happened that I now live in two countries at once. One part of me still remains in Russia, and the other part has already moved to Prague.

Quanta protect against wiretapping The message of the US National Institute of Standards (NIST) is quite a sensation: a technology has been created that will dramatically reduce the cost of quantum communication devices. The one that is expected to remove the problem of protecting information channels from eavesdropping In modern communication networks, information is transmitted over an optical fiber in a stream of the shortest flashes of light: there is a flash - one, no flash - zero.

To be honest, I don’t really like variations on the theme of how “Russia has risen from its knees”. There are two main reasons. The first is economic. Russia did not rise by itself, it was literally raised by the hair by the price of oil, and this is unearned income. One can repeat, following the government, that the "oil contribution" to economic growth is declining year by year.

Domestic agencies reported with pomp: a successful test flight of the first prototype of the new Ka-52 Alligator combat helicopter had finally taken place. And this, according to the CEO of the Russian Helicopters holding, is truly a "significant event for the Russian helicopter industry." Still not significant, since they flew!

For what words on the Internet you can get a term The location of the incident is the internet. Syktyvkar blogger Savva Terentiev, who spoke sharply about our law enforcement officers in his LiveJournal, is now actually a criminal. The city court found him guilty of inciting hatred and enmity and sentenced him to a year of probation. And so he set a precedent. What you can and cannot write in your blogs - The New Times found out This story has been going on since February 2007.

Commentary by former Sherpa Andrey Illarionov How are decisions made in this club of the rich and powerful? And what effect does it have on the world? The New Times asked Andrey Illarionov, a Russian Sherpa, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the G-8 in 2000-2005, about this. What is the meaning of the "eight"?

July 19 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, and if it were only in poetry, we would hardly remember this date. Undoubtedly, Vladimir Mayakovsky is the most talented of the futurists. Because he is first of all a poet, and then a futurist. But our hearts aches on July 19 not only for this reason. Mayakovsky was one of those Vladimir Vladimirovichs who pay their own bills, and pay generously: with their own, and not with someone else's blood.

From Okinawa to Hokkaido. In July 2000, observers followed the summit of the 7+1 Group in Okinawa, where the then-new Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived. Exactly eight years later, the G8 and the next president, Dmitry Medvedev, were hosted by another Japanese island, Hokkaido. It's hard to resist comparisons What is expected from Medvedev is the opposite of what was expected from Putin eight years ago.

Kofi Annan — The New Times Africa is an almost traditional theme for the G-8. The G8-2008 began with a conversation about the problems of the Black Continent, and one of the three sections of the final document adopted by the summit participants is dedicated specifically to Africa. Kofi Annan, chairman of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa, former UN Secretary-General, spoke about ways to solve problems and the possible recolonization of Africa in an interview with The New Times.

Master class by Takeshi Kitano Kitano, banzai! The 14th film by the outstanding Japanese director and actor Takeshi Kitano was released on the screens - an absurd parody tragic farce about the ups and downs of the creative process "Banzai, director!" Shortly before that, Kitano visited Moscow. At VGIK, he answered questions from students and the New Times columnist, who was the host of the master class I’ll make a reservation right away: I can’t teach much, because I myself know a little.